Experience

experimental film Film GAME cinematic game film game movie machinima simulation videogame

'EXPERIENCE' is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative Machinima project produced by A Pixelated Point of View and game developer Pixelsplit in the form of a short, experimental film. Experience was produced in one of Pixelsplit's most popular games: Virtual Rides III; a funfair simulation game in which the player is given full control on the customization and control of more than twenty unique funfair rides on a fictional fairground. The final product consists of a visual study of the virtual fairground itself; aiming to highlight the premises, the machines and its visitors from as many different perspectives as possible.

Production took place between the summers of 2020 and 2021. Each of the rides found within the game was given a custom 4-way color palette, a theme consisting of airbrush-styled custom art, public-domain art or stock photography compositions, and a custom font. Customization was taken to great lengths under the title of 'exceeding expectation of the audience'; a new phenomena I am currently researching for the 'practice of distortion' framework' (a framework that can be used for the cinematic/aesthetic enhancement of machinima and a counter answer to the overly sharp images and over utilized 60-fps culture currently found in machinima practices). By stepping away from the traditional themes that ship with the game and utilizing bold and colorful pallettes, themes and fonts, it was highly believed by us that it would add an additional layer of dimension towards the final product.

The first batch of footage was recorded during the spring of 2021. Shortly after, a teaser was released to announce our collaboration to the public. During the summer of 2021, additional footage was recorded to even out some of the prominent screentime some rides favoured in comparison towards others. Online post-production took place during the fall, during which a second idea behind 'exceeding expectations' took place. As the game contains a slightly yellowish/greenish hue by default, it is something that VR3 players unconsciously familiarize themselves with and dito expect to see in the film, as the film is based on the game. By manipulating this factor in color grading and stepping away from what is 'to be expected', the colors are a becoming highly influential phenomenon for one's initial expectation.